East Boca Relay for Life moves to Mizner Park this year

May 11, 2011|Marci Shatzman mshatzman@tribune.com

The East Boca Relay for Life moves to Mizner Park on Saturday and Sunday for the first time in its 15-year history.

The event hasn't had a stable venue for the last four years, said Rebecca Raulin, community representative for the American Cancer Society South Palm Beach Unit. Last year it was held at Boca Raton Middle School.

"We were searching for a venue that encompassed what Boca Raton is, and the epitome of Boca is Mizner. It's just a great atmosphere," said Katharine M. Osborne, co-chairwoman of this overnight fundraiser for the cancer society.

"When we were looking at a new site, we were both very excited about moving there for the potential of the event," Raulin added.

Her friendship with Raulin got Osborne involved. She went to a few of the relays at Raulin's invitation. Last year, she was persuaded to become the advocacy chairwoman for the chapter, keeping track of legislation and other government goings on.

So when the chairmanship of the East Boca Relay opened up, "it made me realize I wanted to do more this year, and I decided being chair would be more fulfilling," said Osborne, proposal development manager for the Geo Group in Boca Raton and a Boca native. Her co-chairwoman is her cousin Crystal Osborne, of Delray Beach.

There are four Relays for Life in Boca. The events on the campuses of Lynn and Florida Atlantic University held earlier this year were "well over goal," said Raulin. The West Boca Relay for Life is June 3 and 4 at First United Methodist Church on Glades Road. A previous Central Boca event is no longer held.

Each relay starts with a welcoming ceremony and survivor's lap. Cancer survivors carrying a banner do a turn around a track in their special T-shirts to an uplifting song. Then dinner is served, and the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club not only provides the meal for this relay, but serves and cleans up, Osborne said.

Teams who sign up for this event in advance have a tent where members "set up camp because they're going to be there for awhile," Osborne said. They bring sleeping bags, foldout chairs and some even bring grills. Although the event officially starts at 4 p.m., set up starts at 2 p.m., and it doesn't end until 10 a.m. the next morning.

Like any relay there are continual laps, every hour in fact, with the added incentives of pizza and ice cream. At 9 p.m. there's a solemn luminaria ceremony, where the names and messages for people who survived cancer or did not are written on a bag with a candle inside and people do a silent lap. "That's the last event of the night. The rest of the night is food, games and music," Osborne said.

People can sign up at relayforlife.org/eastbocaratonfl or call 561-394-7751. They can also donate after the relay.

"Last year we had almost an additional $20,000 after the event," she said.